At the Corner Perk Cafe in Bluffton, SC, an anonymous donor pays for the coffee of anyone in line behind them until the funds run out. Two years ago this idea caught on and now people donate regularly, or even stop by to donate without buying anything. It made us wonder about the principle of random acts of generosity — just because — with no obvious return other than the pleasure of giving freely, making someone happy, or making something better.
We recently took a walk in the park across the way and thought, ‘hmm, what would happen if we just started picking up trash?‘ We would be surprised if we saw an ordinary person doing it; wouldn’t it surprise others? Could this become contagious? What kinds of little kindnesses can you imagine doing just for the hell of it? read more…
The practice of making a retreat – taking oneself OUT of everyday life to withdraw and reflect – has been around for eons. It is part of many spiritual traditions, and to our thinking, should be a requirement for everyone (and paid for by insurance – ha) , so filled as our lives are with doing and action. It’s something that people – including us – used to do a lot more, because life is intense no matter how you slice it and there’s much to reflect on. Sometimes retreating is the only way to see, and detach.
A retreat is a bit different than a vacation, because retreats generally are about taking refuge from the world, notdoing, and about attending to the spirit. Just being. Listening. Taking stock. read more…
(Video link here.) Ever since we saw this 3 minute bit from comedian Louis C.K.’s amazing tv series Louie we’ve been looking for a video clip to post; we FINALLY found one. As Louie drives his daughters to visit their ancient aunt in the country, The Who‘s ”Who are You?” comes on the CD player. The valiant, crazy vision of Louie playing air guitar as he drives and his daughters cringe knocked us out.
Commenter named Alonso summed it up perfectly: ”this this is beautiful. natural yet risky.”
Louie totally went with the jammin’ music of his youth at the risk of making a fool of himself. As we all should, and often do. Natural yet risky.
(Video link here.) In this short TED talk, Graham Hill tells simple ways to start letting go of STUFF and getting rid of it. And why it is so essential.
1. Edit ruthlessly: clear the arteries of our lives, cut the extraneous out of our lives, think before we buy, ask ourselves, ‘Is that really gonna make me happier? Truly?’
2. New mantra: small is sexy. We want space efficiency, we want things that are designed for how they’re used the vast majority of the time–not that rare event. Why have a six burner stove when you rarely use three? So, we want things that nest, things that stack… we wanna digitize. You can take paperwork, books, movies, and you can make it disappear. It’s magic.
3. Think multifunctional spaces and housewares: a sink’s combined with a toilet, a dining table becomes a bed in the same space, a little side table stretches out to seat ten.
Zen Habits recently published the very useful Finding Peace with Uncertainty, about one of our favorite subjects. It made us go back and leaf through the great Maira Kalman’s wonderful book The Principles of Uncertainty. We clipped this image from it imagining, for sure, she naturally applies Zen Habits’ 8 practices herself (we’ve summed them up below):
Try something new, but small and safe. When you mess up, don’t see it as painful failure. See the wonder and opportunity in change. Ask “what’s the worst-case scenario”? Develop a change toolset. Become aware of your clinging. See the downsides of clinging. Experience the joy in the unknown.
These days, we know A LOT of people who are in the middle of a seachange, ourselves included: NOT yet knowing what exactly we’re in the process of creating, or where we’ll end up. So stumbling on this quote by T.S. Eliot was heartening and affirming. It’s just THE DEAL: in creating something new, we can’t control the process, and need to endure the discomfort of not having the answer, yet...and faith that it will come.
We recently stumbled on Anthony Huberman‘s play on the Fischli and Weiss classic how to work better. Like that one, we’d love to see this painted on a building’s exterior wall so it could be read by anyone passing by: a great thought-provoking reminder. TOAST!!??
(Video link here.) A writer we know confessed her method to us: when she was blocked, she just lay down and read something completely unrelated until she fell asleep. It’s like shutting down a computer. When she woke up, she’d usually be able to continue her work.
OMG, we do that too! We were SO happy to hear it, our nap breaks always having come with soupçon of guilt, as essential as we know them to be. When you’re doing creative work, sometimes the answers – or results – just come slowly, and you need to get your focus off them.
This video is another “retreat” we found useful. read more…
My brother is a huge Bill Murray fan so recently having had the “experience” of working with him I asked him if he wouldn’t mind signing a Birthday card for him. Inside he wrote, “grab this day by the neck and kiss it”…my new mantra for life.
WOW!!!! Yeah. Perfect mantra (whether Bill Murray actually said it or not.)
And now here’s the quote we clipped, Murray talking about his teacher Del Close (more WOW!): read more…
…is what we feel for ‘the improvised life’s ever-astonishing and generous readers, who send us ideas, thoughtful comments, support in endless ways and encouragement.
Among the many projects we’re working on, is creating a standing desk – or perhaps better put – a standing area for our the 13-foot desktop we’re creating, so we can sit AND stand during many ours of blogging. We’ve seen many iterations on the internet, not to mention research as to why standing while you work is beneficial. Wirecutter’s recent article rounds up much of it, and shows the lengths, and cost, the standing desk obsession can take you to.
From our recent renovation we’ve discovered that in designing anything, it’s good to keep in mind the simplest, most bare-bones iteration; read more…
In response to our many LEAP photos, and the recent one of a woman wading in (a slow leap) – a definite obsession – reader Maia Tabet emailed us this adage…with her tiny comment.
It’s perfect – charmingly old-fashioned, almost children’s rhyme-ish – and speaks to the practice we work to cultivate, of having faith in the process of doing something new and perhaps frightening, that a “net” or answer will appear. (The quote is by John Burroughs, a nineteenth century author and naturalist who also said: “A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did.”
The other swell piece of the exchange was learning about one of our readers, whom we’ve never met… read more…
Xeni Jardin, a writer for Boing Boing, has been generously open about her experiences with having breast cancer. (Check out “What do To When ‘Stuff Happens’ for her powerful words.) On Wednesday she shared this amazing needlepoint that she keeps on her desk for inspiration, made by Heather Beschizza. We echo the sentiment, and hope it strikes a chord with you or a loved one who has also, at one point or another, needed to say: “FUCK CANCER.”
we’ve been looking for a video clip to post; we FINALLY found one. As Louie drives his daughters to visit their ancient aunt in the country, 
. We clipped this image from it imagining, for sure, she naturally applies Zen Habits’ 8 practices herself (we’ve summed them up below):
, accompanied by an image by the great photographer 
